That Which Was Hidden
by moonswirl
Summary: Gleekathon, day 1552: Still tipsy from the party at George's place, Chloe returns to Rachel's house and goes in search of something she shouldn't be looking for. - Red series


_Started my daily ficlets to make the hiatus pass, then decided to keep going with a 2nd cycle, and then a 3rd, 4th, etc through 73rd cycle. Now cycle 74!_

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><p><strong>"That Which Was Hidden"<br>((Older) Rachel, Sophie (OC),) Chloe (OC)  
>Red series<br>_(no listings yet; sequel to "A Night For Change")_  
><strong>

Marcus had been the one to draw designated driver duty that night, although in their case it was more of a designated walk-you-back-to-your-door duty. He didn't know where Rachel Berry lived, or that the house he would walk Chloe back to was Rachel Berry's house, and in Chloe's tipsy mind, it might have been one of the most hilarious things she had ever come across. She was still laughing as they arrived in front of the house and they said their goodbyes. He walked back down the street, and she turned to the steps out front with a sigh.

She had had such a wonderful night, and it seemed such a shame for it to be over, and she knew that the moment she walked through that door up there, she would be feeling all those bad emotions roll back into her. Just being on the sidewalk was starting to bring it back.

"No, you know what?" she spoke, she had to guess, to the house. "I'm not going to keep doing this," she pointed at the door. "I'm not… It's his fault, not theirs, not mine, his," she pointed 'somewhere else.'

Then she knew what she was going to do, and she gave herself a firm nod, congratulating herself on a sound and reasonable plan before marching up the stairs, nearly tripping and steadying herself before she fumbled for her keys in her bag. She hadn't known the keys to make so much noise before, and then she remembered Rachel and Sophie would be asleep, which meant that such noises simply wouldn't do once she was inside… if she could get inside… There were three keys on her keychain, and she was having the hardest time finding the right one and getting it in the door.

When she did find it, she turned it so slowly, the remaining keys and the dangling owl on the end all firmly gripped in her hand so they wouldn't make a sound, that when the door clicked, she realized she'd been holding her breath, and she let it out… "I need a mint," she told herself, pulling the key back out and carefully slipping it back into her bag. "Shoes…" she thought aloud, removing them before walking through the door and shutting it behind herself.

Now she was inside, and that was the easy part. The harder part would be to find what she was looking for.

Leaving her bag and her shoes just inside the door, she looked around the darkened entrance hallway. Rachel's office was on this floor, not the second, which was a relief on that degree, but it wasn't so much on the other degree, the one where she was plotting to look through her things, and she knew it was wrong. But there was no other way, not if she meant to do what she had in mind to do.

Reaching for the knob, she worried for an instant that the door might be locked, or that there would be some kind of alarm, and even as she turned that knob, she had her eyes squeezed shut… It wasn't locked, and there was no sound, and again she breathed.

There was a flashlight on her phone, and she used this to light her way. "I'm sorry," she whispered. "I'm really sorry, and I won't go digging for more than this, I swear," she nodded, taking small steps toward the desk. She sat in the chair, thinking for a moment how she would much rather be in bed at the moment, but she had already started, and she'd made up her mind, so there was to be no backing down.

She didn't know where to look. Where did one put an address? Rachel might have it on her phone, but that phone would be up in her bedroom with her, wouldn't it, unless… She looked around for an outlet, and with a gasp that sent her hand smacking up to cover her mouth, she saw that her hunch had not been unfounded. There was Rachel's phone, she recognized it, and it was connected to its charger.

Her hopes were dashed as soon as she saw that there was a password, and her head was not clear enough to try and find out what it would be. So she put the phone back down. Maybe she had an actual phonebook, but then why would she put the address there? Maybe…

"The computer…" she turned back to the desk and there it was. She had the password for that one, because it was the same one Rachel and Sophie let her use when she needed it. There was about a second or two where she was afraid she wouldn't remember what it was, but as soon as the prompt came about, her fingers danced across the keyboard, hit enter, and she was in.

She froze when she thought she heard a noise. Had she woken one of them? Did they know she was here? Would they send her home? Call the cops? She waited… No, it was just the wind outside, she was fine.

Again, she tried for contacts, to see if she might have…

For how hard she'd thought it would be to find her father's address, all she had to do was look up his name in Rachel Berry's contacts, and there he was. She grabbed a pen off the desk, wrote the address in her palm, then shut down the computer, put everything in its place, and walked out of the office.

Taking a few more deep breaths, she looked at her palm. She decided to take a picture of it with her phone, having the presence of mind to remember that ink smudged, especially when you were not completely sober and able to remember to be careful with ink on your person.

She had two choices now, to hold on to this information for later, or to stay the course she had started on and get this problem taken care of, once and for all.

She took her shoes, took her bag, and with care not to make a sound, she walked back out on to the streets of New York.

THE END

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><p><strong><strong>AN: This is a one-shot ficlet, which means that signing up for story alert will not bring you any alerts.  
><strong>**In the event of a sequel, the story will be separate from this one. And as chapter stories go, they are  
><strong>******always clearly indicated as such [ex: "Days 204-210" in the summary] Thank you!********


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